Containers are used to package many different kinds of items. One form of container used in the packaging industry is a case that is used for shipping items/products. In the present application, the term “case” is used to refer to such containers. Cases come in many different configurations and are made from a wide variety of materials. However, many cases are foldable and are formed from a flattened state (commonly called a case blank). Cases may be made from an assortment of foldable materials, including cardboard, paperboard, plastic materials, composite materials, and the like and possibly even combinations thereof.
One particular type of case that is in widespread use in packaging a wide variety of items is a case made from a corrugated material, such as corrugated fibreboard. The use of corrugated fibreboard generally enhances the strength of the case. Of those cases made from corrugated fibreboard, the most common type is known as “Regular Slotted Container” case or “RSC” case and it is particularly well suited for packaging all types of items such as by way of example only, glass and plastic bottles, packaged goods, or other smaller cases or cartons.
The process for making an RSC begins with the formation of a piece of plain corrugated sheet material that can be formed by a corrugator machine. An example of a corrugator machine is the BHS Corrugator machine made by BHS Corrugated Maschinen- und Anlagenbau GmbH. The corrugator machine may produce a length of corrugated material of a given width that can be used immediately or stored in a roll until it is ready to be utilized.
The next step in forming an RSC is to take a roll or sheet of such corrugated material that may have an approximate width that may be the same as the width of the desired blank that may be used to form the RSC. The roll or sheet is also cut transversely such as to create sections of cardboard generally rectangular in shape. The corrugated material is then fed through what is known as a flexo-folder gluer machine. In passing through such a machine, the corrugated sheet passes through a printer, which prints words or pictures on one or both sides of the sheet. Next, the material is creased both across and along the sheet material such that when the RSC is folded/erected it may easily bend along the crease lines to form the desired shape.
The creased and printed sheet is then “slotted” with a slotting device which cuts thin transversely oriented “slots” in the board in intervals along the top and bottom. These slots create the panels that may be folded over the top and bottom openings of the RSC when it is erected. Finally, the sheet material goes through a rotary die cutter to remove excess corrugated material along one end of the board and crush down a portoin along a fold line, to create a thin “hinge”. The purpose of the hinge is to later allow the board to be doubled back on itself (i.e. glue one end of the board to the other to create a tube) and glued.
The result of the flexo-folder gluer up to this point is to create a flat RSC blank such as, by way of example only, the blank 900 shown in FIG. 27. Thereafter the flexo-folder gluer may apply glue to the hinge portion of the blank. The panels on either end of the blank are then folded over by a folding mechanism such that one end of the blank is now glued to the other in a flattened tube-shaped orientation to create a flat “knock down” RSC.
After the knock down RSC has been created, it is typically grouped with other RSCs and shipped to the factory of the customer where the knock-down RSCs are to be erected and packed.
When it is desired to fill an RSC with a product, a two step operation is required. First, the RSC must be erected from its knock-down configuration, either by hand or using a “case erector” machine such as is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,510,517, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference. An example of a commercially available RSC case erector is the WF 20 model distributed by Wexxar Packaging.
The second step is placing of the product into the formed case, either by hand or using a “case packer” machine as in U.S. Pat. No. 4,644,734. An example of a commercial case packer is the VCP-25 Vertical Case Packer by Schneider Packaging.
There are a number of systems that are available that perform both the case erection and the case packing functions in a single apparatus.
There are however significant drawbacks to the process of forming and packing the RSCs. For example, the pre-folded and pre-glued blanks are not well adapted to shipping in bulk from the location where the knock-downs are formed to the premises where the knock-downs are erected and packed, due to their asymmetric shape—being three layers thick on the glued seam area and only two layers thick elsewhere. Unstable stacking characteristic of such blanks requires the use of secondary containers and also reduces the number of blanks that can be shipped per unit volume. These factors result in a significant increase in shipping costs compared to blanks that can be shipped in a completely flat arrangement.
Other problems associated with the formation of a RSC relate to the creation of the knock-down RSC. The alignment and gluing that is done to form the “knock-down” is often not very accurately performed and so the RSC that is eventually formed may not be properly and accurately constructed. This may cause problems in the erection of the case and in the loading and storage of items in the RSC.
Despite the foregoing drawbacks, the use of the RSC is widespread in the packaging of items. There may be several reasons for the continued prevalence of the RSC compared to cases formed from flat, die cut blanks (i.e. cases in alternative arrangements that are not folded over and glued into a “knock down” state prior to shipment to the place where the case is to be erected and/or packed). These reasons include the following: (1) RSC cases can be easily set up and sealed by hand without a machine. So in situations where case erecting and packing is done by hand, the RSC case is preferred. RSC cases may be preferred because hand packing can be easily done if problems with machinery arise; (2) The machinery traditionally used to form and pack die cut cases from flat, die cut blanks has been more expensive, complex, and inflexible when compared to RSC erectors and packers. Thus, at a location where the packing of the items into a case is accomplished, it is desirable to have relatively technically straightforward and inexpensive equipment. (3) The standard equipment and process for forming and loading an RSC has been established for many years. Businesses that have invested in RSC-type machinery have not see the need to invest the time and money to move to an alternate system based on a flat die cut blank, in the absence of significant cost savings and a viable alternate system for forming and packing such a case.
However it would be desirable to create a new type of blank and associated case that performs like an RSC and looks like an RSC, if some of the drawbacks of the existing RSC can be overcome. It should be noted that even a slight reduction in wastage of corrugated fibreboard material in creating the blank, would be immensely beneficial. However, it would also be desirable to have methods and apparatuses to form such RSC replacement cases from blanks that could be readily and efficiently employed at customer premises.